[1] Aftergood has a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles and has published research in solid-state physics.
[2] In 1991, Aftergood exposed the classified Project Timberwind, an unacknowledged U.S. Department of Defense special access program to develop a nuclear thermal rocket.
[3] Aftergood was the plaintiff in a 1997 Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency which led to the declassification and publication of the U.S. government's total intelligence budget ($26.6 billion in 1997) for the first time in fifty years.
[4] In 2006, Aftergood won a FOIA lawsuit against the National Reconnaissance Office to release unclassified budget records.
These include Presidential national security directives,[10] US military doctrinal publications,[11] applications of the state secrets privilege,[12] uses of the Invention Secrecy Act,[13] Congressional Research Service reports,[14] and studies performed by the JASON science advisory panel.